the race that is set before us, as we look intently at the Chief Agent and Perfecter of our faith, Jesus.” (Heb. 12:1, 2) Imitate his course. He manifested self-control. One who professes to follow Christ while deliberately ignoring the need for self-control may well fail in his race for the prize of everlasting life. Why, he could no more hope to win in it than the athlete of ancient times could expect to come off a victor if he scorned discipline and exercised no self-command. Of course, one Christian cannot and should not judge another. (Rom. 14:4) But be assured that Jehovah “judges impartially according to each one’s work.” (1 Pet. 1:17) Therefore, how very hard each Christian should work at cultivating and manifesting the fruits of Jehovah’s spirit, including self-control! One’s life is at stake!

18. Even now a Christian can determine what?

18 Even now a Christian can determine if he is running the race for life in such a way as to have the hope of gaining this prize. In what proved to be the twilight of his earthly life, after enduring much more than any athlete of his day, Paul was able to say: “I have fought the fine fight, I have run the course to the finish, I have observed the faith. From this time on there is reserved for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will give me as a reward in that day, yet not only to me, but also to all those who have loved his manifestation.” (2 Tim. 4:7, 8) The apostle was already confident that he had run the Christian race faithfully and that he would receive the “crown of righteousness,” which has by now been conferred upon Paul and other spirit-begotten Christians who have proved faithful to death. But, whether your hopes are heavenly or earthly, you should be displaying self-control and running in such a manner as to have confidence that you have Jehovah’s approval and will gain everlasting life, if only you continue in your present godly, self-controlled course.

19. Why is there good reason to “supply to your faith . . . self-control”?

19 Be determined, therefore, to show self-control. Be an asset to Jehovah’s earthly organization. Do this whether you are an elderly person, a younger adult, or a child. Of course, to gain and maintain self-control requires effort, great effort at times. But it is vital to your Christian progress. Furthermore, it may mean your very life. Hence, there is good reason indeed to “supply to your faith virtue, to your virtue knowledge, to your knowledge self-control.”​—2 Pet. 1:5, 6.

● Minucius Felix, a Latin writer of the third century of our Common Era, wrote a dialogue entitled “Octavius.” In it he sought to refute charges brought against professed Christians of his day. One story that had been circulated was that they drank blood, being “initiated by the slaughter and blood of an infant.” After outlining pagan practices that showed gross disregard for life and the sanctity of blood, Minucius Felix showed that those avowing Christianity at that time had respect for God’s law on blood. He wrote: “They [the heathen] also are not unlike to him who devour the wild beasts from the arena, besmeared and stained with blood, or fattened with the limbs or the entrails of men. To us it is not lawful either to see or to hear of homicide; and so much do we shrink from human blood, that we do not use the blood even of eatable animals in our food.” (The Octavius of Minucius Felix, Chap. XXX, as published in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Volume IV, pages 191, 192) It is noteworthy that as late as the third century C.E. those claiming to follow Christ possessed an attitude toward blood that was Scriptural and not unlike that of true Christians today.​—Gen. 9:3, 4; Acts 15:28, 29; 21:25.